A FEW of you might have heard about this little protest that was held in Lahore a few days ago. I mean everything that anyone opposed to the idea could suggest was done to ensure that the event passed off without receiving people’s attention; but the fact that some of us may still have got a sense of what was going on cannot be ruled out.

The protest was to be led by a gentleman who, it appears, not too many of those wanting to express an opinion right now care about. Indeed, for many of your usual regular commentators the guy is the source for all kinds of jokes. Many amongst us remember the gentleman for his old ploy of using dreams that only he was privy to for fuelling his politics. Others are forever ready to point to the long series of self-serving statements that he has been coming up with to sustain himself.

This is not all that Dr Professor Allama Tahirul Qadri offers his critics to throw at him. His cry for inqilab or revolution has been a great source of perpetual entertainment for many Pakistanis some of whom are provoked by his presence, or even his impending arrival in the country, into practising the most caustic brand of politics.

Everyone knew that after a huff here and a puff there Allama Tahirul Qadri would ask his troops to turn back.

Dr Professor Allama Tahirul Qadri draws extreme reactions from the knowledgeable over his attempts at exploiting his innocent murids and getting them to perform all kinds of senseless acts for him. Among them, the most infamous have been two of his marches on Islamabad. Tiring, meaningless, self-aggrandising marches which yielded little more than an opportunity to live in the open in the capital for a few days. The failure which greeted the commander and his hapless herd at the end of it all provided the critics with a golden opportunity to make fun of him and mock him for the futility of his effort.

The tone having been long set it is only ‘natural’ that the intensity of those targeting the Allama with their jokes has been increasing. Likewise, the audience receptive to the kind of ostensibly light-hearted remarks against the PAT and Minhaj chief has been growing, if you were to take into consideration the response in social media, for example, to jokes and innuendoes directed at him. To the extent that it appears that this time a well-trained network was already in place as Mr Qadri announced a rally on June 17 this year.

Long before the June 17 protest plan in Lahore was fully publicised, the commentators swung into action to thwart the bad designs which can now be so easily associated with the failed marcher named Dr Qadri. The roshan khayal, or whatever remains of them, were out in force proudly rubbing shoulders with their long-time opponents in staving off what everyone then insisted was not a challenge worth spending too much of your energy on.

There was a whole stream of analyses, each practitioner inspired by the ‘visiting doctor’ into coming up with the most innovative of verdicts and conclusions. The most remarkable if not the most original of them was a stern warning to Dr Qadri by an opinion leader or a politician to not recreate June 17, 2014. He was told in a voice drunk on common sense that he had no business exposing his herd to the mercy of law enforcers who were under investigation for their alleged involvement in the June 17, 2014, police action at the Minhaj headquarters that left no less than 14 people dead.

The responsibility of avoiding a repeat rested with the PAT chief, the message was repeatedly relayed. Other precautions were taken, such as the media deciding to not offer the Qadri gathering too much coverage lest it helped any jokers expand the protest. Everyone knew that after a huff here and a puff there the Allama would ask his troops to turn back, emptily promising to return another day.

The operation was successfully carried out, in that the Allama was denied any undue projection. Indeed, the detractors ended up winning a bonus: stories bringing out the sheer pain that those who had come to attend his rally had had to go through. This suffering, it was clearly mentioned, had been heaped upon them by the inherent cruelty of their leadership. It was a leadership that was not worthy of any sympathy, particularly when it was clear that the meek PAT push did not enjoy the support that was thought to have been behind the previous Qadri campaigns.

But what about the 14 people who were allegedly killed by the police, allegedly under orders of the provincial administration, on that unfortunate June day two years ago in Lahore? How many of us in this city where they fell, and where many of them had been raised, have spoken for justice for these 14 precious lives?

During this grand exercise in exchanging jokes about Dr Professor Allama Tahirul Qadri it has been conveniently decided that the responsibility of speaking for justice for those killed in Model Town on June 17, rests solely with Dr Qadri. It is like this: we the people have assigned the duty of fighting the case of the killing of 14 people to the same person we – the liberal and others – are never tired of ridiculing in our routine commentaries.

The 14, it would appear, had committed the ultimate sin of choosing to stand by a flawed, widely caricatured leader. Nothing – not even their sad departure from the world in a hail of bullets – could restore to them the dignity which was once associated with them as humans, men and women. They were unworthy, unfit for revolution as Tahirul Qadri followers during their lifetime. Posthumously they are condemned as an unwanted memory by a large number who wants them expunged from history. That is callousness for you in its true form.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016